US20080242251A1 - Method and device for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system and method and device for receiving signals in a wireless communication system - Google Patents
Method and device for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system and method and device for receiving signals in a wireless communication systemDownload PDFInfo
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- US20080242251A1 US20080242251A1US12/026,818US2681808AUS2008242251A1US 20080242251 A1US20080242251 A1US 20080242251A1US 2681808 AUS2681808 AUS 2681808AUS 2008242251 A1US2008242251 A1US 2008242251A1
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
- H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
- H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
- H04B7/0408—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas using two or more beams, i.e. beam diversity
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
- H01Q1/00—Details of, or arrangements associated with, antennas
- H01Q1/12—Supports; Mounting means
- H01Q1/22—Supports; Mounting means by structural association with other equipment or articles
- H01Q1/24—Supports; Mounting means by structural association with other equipment or articles with receiving set
- H01Q1/241—Supports; Mounting means by structural association with other equipment or articles with receiving set used in mobile communications, e.g. GSM
- H01Q1/246—Supports; Mounting means by structural association with other equipment or articles with receiving set used in mobile communications, e.g. GSM specially adapted for base stations
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
- H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
- H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
- H04B7/06—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station
- H04B7/0686—Hybrid systems, i.e. switching and simultaneous transmission
- H04B7/0695—Hybrid systems, i.e. switching and simultaneous transmission using beam selection
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
- H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
- H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
- H04B7/08—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the receiving station
- H04B7/0868—Hybrid systems, i.e. switching and combining
- H04B7/088—Hybrid systems, i.e. switching and combining using beam selection
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
- H04L1/00—Arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received
- H04L1/0001—Systems modifying transmission characteristics according to link quality, e.g. power backoff
- H04L1/0006—Systems modifying transmission characteristics according to link quality, e.g. power backoff by adapting the transmission format
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
- H04L1/00—Arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received
- H04L1/02—Arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received by diversity reception
- H04L1/06—Arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received by diversity reception using space diversity
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
- H04L5/00—Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path
- H04L5/003—Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W48/00—Access restriction; Network selection; Access point selection
- H04W48/08—Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery
Definitions
- the present inventionrelates to a transmitting device for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system, to a receiving device for receiving signals in a wireless communication system, to a method for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system as well as to a method for receiving signals in a wireless communication system.
- Wireless communicationis used in a large variety of technical fields, such as mobile telephones, wireless LAN, broadcast radio systems, point-to-point radio systems and many other known and future applications.
- the communication radius covered by a respective wireless communication systembasically depends on the technique used. Whereas cellular communication systems, such as the GSM and the UMTS system, are adapted for a communication radius up to about 10 km (or more), wireless LAN is in the range of about 100 m (or more) and the Bluetooth system is in the range of several 10 m (or more).
- the mayor influences on the communication range of a wireless communication systemare the radio frequency and the output power used.
- LOSdirect line of sight
- reflection pathsbetween the transmitter and the receiver, i.e. transmission paths in which the transmitted electromagnetic wave is reflected at least once by objects before it reaches the receiver.
- FIG. 1 aAn example for such a communication system is shown in FIG. 1 a .
- the shown communication systemcomprises a transmitter 20 and a receiver 21 .
- the transmittercomprises three narrow beam antennas 25 a , 25 b and 25 c and the receiver 21 as well comprises three narrow beam antennas 26 a , 26 b and 26 c .
- the transmitter 20 or the receiver 21comprises a single wide beam antenna.
- FIG. 1 ashows a single wide beam antenna.
- a first transmission path P 0is the line of sight path and two other paths P 1 and P 2 are none line of sight paths, in which the transmitted electromagnetic wave is reflected by objects 22 .
- the transmitter 20 and the receiver 21negotiate several transmission paths out of the whole number of transmission paths that are usable for a communication.
- the communicationthen is started over the transmission path having the best transmission characteristics.
- the direct line of sight path P 0has the best characteristics and therefore the data frames 23 a , 23 b and 23 c are transmitted over this path.
- the communicationgoes then on over the selected path until due to any reason, e.g. a moving human being, a vehicle or the like, the actual used transmission path gets blocked. In this case, the communication is then switched to a further path, for example to path P 1 .
- the problem that arises with the shown state of the art communication systemis shown in FIG. 1 b .
- the shown communication systemagain comprises a transmitter 20 and a receiver 21 each having several narrow beam antennas 25 a , 25 b , 25 c , 26 a , 26 b and 26 c .
- the communicationis started with the transmission of the first data frame 23 a via the active path P 0 .
- an obstacle 24blocks the actual transmission path P 0 at least some of the further data frames 23 b , 23 c will get blocked by the obstacle and will not arrive at the receiver 21 .
- the communicationwill then switch to another path P 1 or P 2 .
- This objectis solved by a transmitting device according to claim 1 , by a receiving device according to claim 9 , by a transmitting method according to claim 18 and by a receiving method according to claim 26 .
- a transmitting devicefor transmitting signals in a wireless communication system, wherein said signals are transmitted in consecutive frames, each frame comprising a beacon and data frames, said transmitting device comprising a first set of narrow beam antennas, each narrow beam antenna having a different beaming direction corresponding to one of a number of different transmission paths from said transmitting device to a receiving device, and a first control means adapted to control the transmission of said frames, whereby the data frames of respectively two consecutive frames are transmitted via different narrow beam antennas.
- a receiving devicefor receiving signals in a wireless communication system, wherein said signals are received in consecutive frames, each frame comprising a beacon and data frames, said receiving device comprising a second set of narrow beam antennas, each narrow beam antenna having a different beaming direction corresponding to one of a number of different transmission paths from a transmitting device to said receiving device, and a second control means adapted to control the reception of said frames, whereby the data frames of respectively two consecutive frames are received via different narrow beam antennas.
- a method for transmitting signals in a wireless communication systemwherein said signals are transmitted in consecutive frames, each frame comprising a beacon and data frames, said transmitting method comprising the steps of providing a first set of narrow beam antennas, each narrow beam antenna having a different beaming direction corresponding to one of a number of different transmission paths from a transmitting device to a receiving device, and transmitting the data frames of respectively two consecutive frames via different narrow beam antennas.
- a methodfor receiving signals in a wireless communication system, wherein said signals are received in consecutive frames, each frame comprising a beacon and data frames, said receiving method comprising the steps of providing a second set of narrow beam antennas, each narrow beam antenna having a different beaming direction corresponding to one of a number of different transmission paths from a transmitting device to a receiving device, and receiving the data frames of respectively two consecutive frames via different narrow beam antennas.
- a beacon generatorgenerates the beacon for estimating the path quality.
- a first memoryis adapted to store a list of paths that can be used as transmission paths.
- the first control meansupdates the path list stored in the first memory depending on a change of the path quality.
- the first control meansremoves a path with a decreased path quality from the path list stored in the first memory.
- the first control meansadds a path with an increased path quality to the path list stored in the first memory.
- the beacon and the data frames of a frameare sent via different narrow beam antennas.
- At least one additional beaconis sent between two frames.
- a path estimatorestimates the path quality based on the received beacon.
- a second memoryis adapted to store a list of paths that can be used as transmission paths.
- the second control meansupdates the path list stored in the second memory depending on a change of the path quality.
- the second control meansremoves a path with a decreased path quality from the path list stored in the second memory.
- the second control meansadds a path with an increased path quality to the path list stored in the second memory.
- the beacon and the frames of a frameare received via different narrow beam antennas.
- At least one additional beaconis received between two frames.
- the present inventioncan be applied to any kind of wireless communication system which enables the transmission and reception of signals over any kind of range. Further, the present invention is not restricted to any kind of modulation schemes or technical implementation of the wireless communication. Some embodiments and implementations of the present invention, however, might be advantageous in short and/or midrange wireless communication systems in which signals are transmitted in the millimetre wave range, as e.g. the 60 GHz transmission range. Further, the transmitting device and the receiving device of the present invention can be any kind of device adapted to transmit and receive, respectively, signals in a wireless communication system.
- the terms “transmitting device” and “receiving device”are hereby intended to comprise any kind of portable and/or stationary communication equipment, unit, means, system and so forth.
- the signals to be transmitted from the transmitting device to the receiving devicemay comprise any kind of information, data, symbols and so forth which can be transmitted from a transmitter to a receiver for any kind of reason and utility.
- at least one of the transmitting device and the receiving devicecomprises at least two narrow beam antennas.
- a transmitting device and a receiving devicecomprise a narrow beam antenna which is adapted to be steered to different positions.
- the term “narrow beam antenna”is hereby intended to comprise and cover all kinds of antennas which, in contrary to omni-directional antennas which do not have a specific transmission and/or reception direction, have a specific transmission and/or reception direction without any limitation of the specific shape of the antenna beam.
- the narrow beam antenna of the present inventionis not restricted to any specific steering type, i.e. the specific technical implementation which enables the steering or a switching of the narrow beam antenna to different beaming directions as long as the transmitting and/or receiving direction of the narrow beam antenna can be changed, switched, varied and the like.
- a narrow beam antenna according to the present inventionmay be an antenna with a fixed narrow beam radiation pattern, which can be varied by mechanically or electrically shifting the antennas so that the beam direction is varied.
- the narrow beam antennacould be any antenna type which can be steered by changing the phase and/or the gain of the antenna so that the beam direction changes.
- the narrow beam antennacould consist of an antenna pattern whereby each of the antenna elements of the antenna pattern has a specific narrow beam antenna direction and the elements can be controlled in a way that the beaming direction of the antenna is changed.
- steerable narrow beam antennascan be made, which are currently known or which may be developed in the future, but which would fall under the scope of the present invention.
- FIGS. 1 a and 1 bshow a communication system according to the state of art
- FIG. 2schematically shows a transmitting device according to the present invention
- FIG. 3schematically shows a receiving device according to the present invention
- FIGS. 4 a and 4 bschematically show a communication system according to the present invention
- FIG. 5schematically shows the possible paths between a transmitting device and a receiving device according to the present invention
- FIG. 6is a flow chart showing the process according to the method of the present invention.
- FIGS. 7 a and 7 bschematically showing the frame structures
- FIG. 8 ashows a first embodiment according to the present invention
- FIG. 8 bshows a second embodiment according to the present invention.
- FIG. 2shows a schematic block diagram of a transmitting device 1 for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system according to the present invention.
- the transmitting device 1 of the present invention as shown in FIG. 2is only displayed with elements which are necessary for the implementation and the understanding of the present invention. All other necessary elements enabling the transmitting device 1 to transmit signals in a wireless communication system are not shown for the sake of clarity. However, in a practical implementation, all such elements, for example a power supply and the like would be implemented.
- the transmitting device 1comprises a first set 2 of narrow beam antennas which is adapted to allow a transmission of signals into different directions.
- a first antenna control means 4is provided which controls the first set 2 of narrow beam antennas either by steering the narrow beam antennas to different positions or by switching between the different narrow beam antennas.
- the first antenna control meansitself is controlled by a first control means 5 .
- the first control means 5can be a base-stand processing and/or controlling means of the transmitting device 1 or any other suitable control unit.
- the first control means 5is connected to a first memory 6 for storing data, information, applications, software codes and so forth.
- the transmitting device 1is adapted to transmit signals in consecutive time frames, whereby examples of such frames are shown in FIGS. 7 a and 7 b and will be explained later.
- the term “consecutive”does not necessarily mean that the frames are transmitted immediately one after the other.
- there might be an interval between two consecutive frameswhich e.g. can be used to handle the clock difference between a transmitting device 1 and a receiving side, such as the receiving device 10 as shown and explained in FIG. 3 , in order to support long time and high rate wireless communications, such as wireless high definition television or the like.
- the framecomprises a beacon and data frames.
- a beacon generator 9 for generating the beacon and a data means 8are provided in the transmitting device.
- the data means 8generates, collects, or obtains the data in any kind of suitable way and forwards the data to the frame generator 7 .
- the beacon generator 9also forwards the generated beacon to the frame generator 7 where the frames are formed. After a frame has been generated by the frame generator 7 , the generated frames are then further processed in the usual manner, e.g. by modulating the frame information or the like, which are then upconverted and transmitted via first high frequency means 3 through the first set 2 of narrow beam antennas.
- FIG. 3An example of a receiving device 10 for receiving signals in a wireless communication system according to the present invention is schematically shown in the block diagram of FIG. 3 .
- the receiving device 10comprises a second set 11 of narrow beam antennas which is adapted to receive signals via different transmission paths.
- a second antenna control means 13is able to control the beaming direction of the second set 11 of narrow beam antennas either by steering the narrow beam antennas to different positions or by switching between the different narrow beam antennas.
- the second antenna control meansitself is under the control of a second control means 14 .
- the second control 14can be any kind of suitable control means, such as a base band processing means of the receiving device 10 , or any other suitable control and/or processing device.
- the second control means 14is connected to second memory 15 adapted to store data, information, applications, software programs and so forth necessary for the operation of the receiving device 10 .
- the receiving device 10further comprises a second high frequency section 12 which is used to down convert the received signals via the second set 11 of narrow beam antennas, which signals are then further processed in the usual manner in the receiving device 10 .
- a path estimator 16is adapted to perform an estimation of the quality of the used path on the basis of the received beacon.
- the path estimation information derived by the path estimator 16can e.g. be used in the second control means 14 for changing the beaming direction to a suitable position.
- FIG. 3only shows the necessary elements for understanding the present invention. In a practical implementation the receiving device 10 would comprise all other necessary elements for the operation of the receiving device 10 enabling the reception of signals in a wireless communication system.
- the receiving device 10also comprises all necessary elements and functionalities to transmit signals in the wireless communication system either via the second set 11 of antennas or a separate transmission antenna.
- the transmitting device 1comprises all necessary elements and functionalities enabling the reception of the signals in the wireless communication system either via the first set 2 of antennas or a separate reception antenna.
- the elements and functionalities of the transmitting device 1 shown and explained in relation to FIG. 2 and of the receiving device 10 shown and explained in relation to FIG. 3could be combined in a communication device enabling the transmission and reception of signals in the wireless communication system.
- FIGS. 4 a and 4 bshow a communication system comprising a transmitting device 1 and a receiving device 10 according to the present invention.
- the transmitting device 1hereby comprises three narrow beam antennas 2 a , 2 b and 2 c each having a different beaming direction.
- the receiving device 10as well comprises three narrow beam antennas 11 a , 11 b and 11 c also each having a different beaming direction.
- the transmitting device 1 and the receiving device 10negotiate a transmission scheme comprising a list of transmission paths that can be used for transmission. As shown in the example of FIG.
- the transmitting deviceWhen transmitting now the different data frames, the transmitting device does not only use one single path but transmits each frame via a different transmission path according to a round robin scheduling. For example, the transmitting device 1 transmits the first frame 23 a via the antenna 2 b and the transmission path P 0 to the receiving device 10 . The second frame 23 b is then transmitted over the antenna 2 a and the transmission path P 1 to the antenna 11 a of the receiving device 10 . The third frame 23 c is then transmitted over the third antenna 2 c and the path P 2 to the receiving device 10 .
- FIG. 4 aThe advantage of the communication system is shown in FIG. 4 a where, as according to the state of art, after the transmission of the first frame 23 a an obstacle 24 gets in the way of the line of sight transmission path P 0 . Due to the round robin scheduling and the transmission of subsequent frames via different transmission paths the second and the third frame 23 b and 23 c are not transmitted over the blocked path P 0 and therefore the possibility that a frame gets lost is decreased.
- the present inventionis not limited to a round robin scheduling algorithm but may implement any other path hopping scheme or algorithm that provides the possibility to use different paths for subsequent frames.
- the order of the used pathscan be either repeated or the order can be changed even if not paths are added or deleted from the path list. Additionally or alternatively, one or more paths can be used more often than other paths.
- the present inventionproposes to constantly monitor the paths that may be used for a transmission of a data frame. So the transmitting device 1 and the receiving device 10 both hold a list of paths having a good path quality that can be used for transmission. Due to the monitoring of the path of the actual path list it can be detected if either a path out of the actual path list has a decreased quality and should therefore be removed from the path list or if a path that is actually not in the path list has an increased quality and therefore can be also used as a possible transmission path.
- the transmission pathis changed for subsequent frames in any case and not only in case that the presently used transmission path has a decreased quality.
- the present inventionadopts a pro-active switching of transmission paths. I.e. even if the alternative transmission paths may have a slightly decreased transmission quality they will nevertheless be used for subsequent frames in order to reduce the probability of packet loss due to suddenly blocked beams.
- the present inventionis carried out by using the MAC protocol.
- the MAC protocoltakes into account the very specific application scenarios of the communication system.
- the main application scenariois a peer-to-peer connection between a sending and a receiving note.
- the MAC protocoldistinguished two node classes, master and slave devices. In most cases, masters are stationary devices, whereas slaves may be portable devices but in the present invention, masters and slaves in both cases may be portable devices.
- Base of the MAC protocolis a super frame as shown in FIG. 7 a with a definition of 10 msec.
- the masterindicates the start of a super frame by sending a beacon BSF periodically every 10 msec.
- the beaconis followed by a contention access period CAP during which nodes which are not known to the master yet can send a registration request.
- the beaconis sent alternatively via the master's antennas. If a slave nodes response to a beacon, the master knows via which antenna the slave node can be reached initially.
- the contention access period CAPfollow the downlink and uplink communication slots, where downlink denotes the direction from master to slave, and uplink from slave to master, respectively.
- the up- and downlink slotscan have different lengths, i.e., they do not have to be symmetric.
- Either the master or the slavecan initiate a connection. If a slave is the originator, it uses the contention access period to send a connection request to the master, which in turn assigns a number of up- and downstream slots to this slave. The upstream slots will be used for communication to the master by the slave from that point onward.
- a beacon super frameis sent periodically in which only beacons are sent, but via all different antennas of the master. Thus the slave can determine whether it receives beacons from the master via other paths than the currently active path.
- the present inventionwith a transmitting device 1 and a receiving device 10 depending on the number of narrow beam antennas, there are several possible communication paths between the transmitting device 1 and the receiving device 10 .
- the present inventionis not restricted to a number of two or three narrow beam antennas but may implement also more beam antennas for the transmitting device 1 and the receiving device 10 .
- the present inventionis not limited to a communication system comprising a transmitting device 1 and a receiving device 10 , each having several narrow beam antennas, but is also related to a communication system having either a transmitting device 1 with narrow beam antennas or a receiving device 10 with narrow beam antennas, whereby the respectively other device only has a single wide beam antenna.
- the masterFor network formation, the master periodically sends beacons in a 10 msec super frame via all antennas. If a slave comes in range, it waits for a sufficient amount of time, i.e., at least 10 msec per antenna before switching to the next antenna. When receiving a signal from the master via the currently selected antenna, it notifies the master through an immediate MAC control message.
- FIG. 7 bshow a simplified block diagram of a frame as transmitted and received in the present invention.
- the framehereby comprises a beacon BSF and several data frames.
- the data frameshereby may be transmitted either from the transmitting device to the receiving device or vice versa.
- the super framemay also comprise other sequences, such as a contention access period, training sequences, or other preamble sections. For the sake of clarity, in the following description it is only referred to the beacon and the several data frames.
- FIG. 5shows an example of the establishing of transmission paths.
- the first transmission path P 0is the line of sight transmission path between the antenna 2 c of the transmitting device 1 and the antenna 11 c of the receiving device 10 .
- the transmitting device 1will then continue to send out beacons via the other antennas in order to find additional transmission paths.
- the first transmission path P 0is the line of sight transmission path between the antenna 2 c of the transmitting device 1 and the antenna 11 c of the receiving device 10 .
- the transmitting device 1will then continue to send out beacons via the other antennas in order to find additional transmission paths.
- an additional transmission path P 1where the electromagnetic wave is reflected by an object 22 , is found between the antenna 2 a of the transmitting device 1 and the antenna 11 a of the receiving device 10 .
- the transmitting device 1 and the receiving device 10thereby both have a list of possible communication paths, in this case the paths P 0 and P 1 .
- This listcomprises the communication path whose channel quality is high enough for data communication as well as the corresponding antenna beam IDs which has to be utilized to establish the communication link.
- the possible transmission pathschange both lists, i.e., the path list of the transmitting device 1 as well as the path list of the receiving device 10 have to be changed accordingly.
- step S 0The process starts in step S 0 for example, with an already negotiated list of communication paths as already explained.
- step S 1the actual path list is checked.
- the transmitting devicetransmits the data frames via the first path out of the path list and/or the receiving device receives data frames via a first path out of the actual path list.
- next step S 3which can also be before the step S 2 or at the same time as step S 2 , a beacon is transmitted and/or received via at least one path that has not been used for the transmission and/or reception of the data in step S 2 .
- next step S 4it is checked if according to the transmitted and/or received beacon, a change in path quality has been detected.
- a change in path qualitymay be either that a path which is comprised in the actual path list is not good enough anymore to be used as a possible communication channel or a change in path quality may also be the case that a path which previously has no good transmission properties and therefore was not used for a possible transmission channel now has an increased channel quality and can be used for a possible transmission path.
- step S 7the path list is updated, i.e., paths of the path list having a decreased quality are removed from the path list and paths not being on the list having an increased channel quality are added to the path list.
- the next step S 5it is checked if the end of the transmission and/or reception is reached. In case that there are no more data frames that shall be transmitted, the communication ends in step S 6 .
- step S 8the next data frame in step S 8 is transmitted and/or received via a further path out of the path list, whereby the path list is either the original path list or the updated path list, and whereby the further path is not the same path as the first one used in step S 2 .
- step S 3which may also be concurrently to step S 8 , where again beacons are sent over the other paths in order to check the channel quality.
- the list of useable pathsis constantly updated.
- the MAC protocoluses beacons in its super frames.
- a super framestarts with a beacon BSF, followed by one or several data frames DF or control frames, all transmitted from the master to the slave. Thereafter the slave transmits its data or control frames to the master.
- the master and the slavesare using the previously negotiated active beam path and the respective antennas allowing a transmission over the selected beam path.
- the master and the slaveutilize in every super frame a different antenna beam in order to test the channel quality of this test beam channel.
- the master and slavenegotiate a path hopping scheme, e.g. a round robin scheduling of the data transmission. Assuming the availability of three paths, only every third frame is transmitted over the same path. If one of those paths is blocked by an obstacle, the probability is 33% that a frame gets lost before the blocked path is removed from the list of active paths. This is only the case if the path gets blocked while transmitting a frame. In general terms, if the master and slave can communicate via n possible paths, the probability that a path gets blocked while or just before transmitting a frame is 1/n.
- a path hopping schemee.g. a round robin scheduling of the data transmission. Assuming the availability of three paths, only every third frame is transmitted over the same path. If one of those paths is blocked by an obstacle, the probability is 33% that a frame gets lost before the blocked path is removed from the list of active paths. This is only the case if the path gets blocked while transmitting a frame. In general terms, if the master and slave can communicate via
- the distribution of the super frame transmissioncan be adapted accordingly. If, e.g. the line of sight paths becomes more often blocked than the other non line of sight paths, the path hopping scheme may utilize the line of sight less than the other paths, thus decreasing the probability of frame loss even more should the path be blocked.
- the present inventionprovides a data transmission via different paths.
- the present inventionproposes a path monitoring of the quality of the other paths which are not actually used for data transmission.
- the transmitting device 1can while sending a data frame via one path monitor the other known paths to determine the path quality. If the transmitting device 1 based on the feedback of the receiving device determines during these checks that a path got blocked, this path is removed from the path candidate list. Ideally, in this case no data losses occur, since the blocked path will not be used for transmission on the next round.
- the path monitoring that is performed during the transmissionwill have determined that this path is blocked and the removed the path from the list of paths to be used for transmission.
- the present inventionproposes two embodiments, but is not limited to the presented embodiments.
- FIG. 8 aA first embodiment of a path monitoring scheme is shown in FIG. 8 a .
- the time axisis hereby provided from the left to the right.
- Each linedenotes a different path, in the present example four paths are provided.
- the transmissionstarts with super frame no. 1 .
- a beaconis sent over path 2 and the transmission of the data frames happens via path 1 . That means that path 1 has been negotiated previously as the path having the best channel qualities and therefore the data frame transmission starts with path 1 .
- the beaconis sent over path 2 , so the path quality of path 2 can be monitored.
- the data framesare sent over path 2 .
- the beaconis sent over the next path of the path list which in the present example is path 3 .
- path 3provides good channel qualities or if it is blocked.
- the beaconmay not only be sent over a single path but over more paths in order to concurrently monitor several paths.
- the advantage of this first embodimentis that no additional time is needed to scan the available paths which increases the maximum data rate.
- FIG. 8 bA second embodiment is shown in FIG. 8 b .
- the monitoring processcan be performed between the transmission of subsequent super frames.
- the super frame 1is entirely sent via path no. 1 .
- an inter super frameis used where beacons are sent over all other paths in order to monitor the path quality of the other paths.
- the next path on the path listin the present example path 2 , has good channel qualities, then the next super frame 2 will be sent over path 2 .
- This scan of all known paths in the inter super frame period in order to determine the path statusrequires that the receiving device answers immediately via the same path. If the path is blocked, the transmitting device will not receive the reply and drops the path from the next scheduled data transmission.
- the distribution of the different frames over the different pathsis determined by a round robin scheduling algorithm but also other algorithms may be used.
- the round robin schedulingreduces the probability of lost frames due to an obstacle in the path to 1/n, if path monitoring is employed simultaneously to the frame transmission.
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Abstract
Description
- The present invention relates to a transmitting device for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system, to a receiving device for receiving signals in a wireless communication system, to a method for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system as well as to a method for receiving signals in a wireless communication system.
- Wireless communication is used in a large variety of technical fields, such as mobile telephones, wireless LAN, broadcast radio systems, point-to-point radio systems and many other known and future applications. The communication radius covered by a respective wireless communication system basically depends on the technique used. Whereas cellular communication systems, such as the GSM and the UMTS system, are adapted for a communication radius up to about 10 km (or more), wireless LAN is in the range of about 100 m (or more) and the Bluetooth system is in the range of several 10 m (or more). The mayor influences on the communication range of a wireless communication system are the radio frequency and the output power used. Although only little absorption of electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere occurs at the radio frequency used for GSM and UMTS, a significant absorption occurs in the 60 GHz range, which makes it quite well suited for low range and indoor wireless communication. Furthermore, the kind of transmission and/or reception antenna that is used for a respective wireless communication technique is depending on a respective field of application.
- Generally, between a transmitter and a receiver there exist several transmission paths depending on the number of antennas. In case that the direct line of sight (LOS) path is blocked by an obstacle, such as a moving human being, a vehicle or the like, there still exist several reflection paths between the transmitter and the receiver, i.e. transmission paths in which the transmitted electromagnetic wave is reflected at least once by objects before it reaches the receiver.
- In the state of art therefore for the transmitter, the receiver or for both several narrow beam antennas are used. An example for such a communication system is shown in
FIG. 1 a. The shown communication system comprises atransmitter 20 and areceiver 21. As shown inFIG. 1 a, the transmitter comprises threenarrow beam antennas receiver 21 as well comprises threenarrow beam antennas transmitter 20 or thereceiver 21 comprises a single wide beam antenna. As shown inFIG. 1 a, for a communication between thetransmitter 20 and thereceiver 21 three possible transmission paths are selected, whereby a first transmission path P0is the line of sight path and two other paths P1and P2are none line of sight paths, in which the transmitted electromagnetic wave is reflected byobjects 22. According to the state of art before starting a communication thetransmitter 20 and thereceiver 21 negotiate several transmission paths out of the whole number of transmission paths that are usable for a communication. The communication then is started over the transmission path having the best transmission characteristics. In the example as shown inFIG. 1 a, the direct line of sight path P0has the best characteristics and therefore thedata frames - The problem that arises with the shown state of the art communication system is shown in
FIG. 1 b. The shown communication system again comprises atransmitter 20 and areceiver 21 each having severalnarrow beam antennas first data frame 23avia the active path P0. In case that anobstacle 24 blocks the actual transmission path P0at least some of thefurther data frames receiver 21. In case that such a blocking of the active path is detected, in the conventional communication system the communication will then switch to another path P1or P2. - The disadvantage of such systems is its reactive nature. These systems use the line of sight path P0until the path quality degrades, and subsequently switch to another none line of sight path P1or P2. Due to the latency involved in finding another path and switching the antenna, a significant amount of data may be lost.
- It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a transmitting device, a receiving device and a method for transmitting and receiving signals in a wireless communication system that reduces the possible loss of data through the switching process.
- This object is solved by a transmitting device according to
claim 1, by a receiving device according toclaim 9, by a transmitting method according to claim18 and by a receiving method according toclaim 26. - According to the present invention a transmitting device is provided for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system, wherein said signals are transmitted in consecutive frames, each frame comprising a beacon and data frames, said transmitting device comprising a first set of narrow beam antennas, each narrow beam antenna having a different beaming direction corresponding to one of a number of different transmission paths from said transmitting device to a receiving device, and a first control means adapted to control the transmission of said frames, whereby the data frames of respectively two consecutive frames are transmitted via different narrow beam antennas.
- Further, according to the present invention a receiving device is provided for receiving signals in a wireless communication system, wherein said signals are received in consecutive frames, each frame comprising a beacon and data frames, said receiving device comprising a second set of narrow beam antennas, each narrow beam antenna having a different beaming direction corresponding to one of a number of different transmission paths from a transmitting device to said receiving device, and a second control means adapted to control the reception of said frames, whereby the data frames of respectively two consecutive frames are received via different narrow beam antennas.
- According to the present invention a method is provided for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system, wherein said signals are transmitted in consecutive frames, each frame comprising a beacon and data frames, said transmitting method comprising the steps of providing a first set of narrow beam antennas, each narrow beam antenna having a different beaming direction corresponding to one of a number of different transmission paths from a transmitting device to a receiving device, and transmitting the data frames of respectively two consecutive frames via different narrow beam antennas.
- Further, according to the present invention a method is provided for receiving signals in a wireless communication system, wherein said signals are received in consecutive frames, each frame comprising a beacon and data frames, said receiving method comprising the steps of providing a second set of narrow beam antennas, each narrow beam antenna having a different beaming direction corresponding to one of a number of different transmission paths from a transmitting device to a receiving device, and receiving the data frames of respectively two consecutive frames via different narrow beam antennas.
- By transmitting/receiving data frames of consecutive frames via different narrow beam antennas and thereby via different transmission paths, the possibility that frames get lost is decreased as this specific transmission/reception algorithm switches the transmission path before an obstacle within the transmission blocks the transmission/reception.
- Preferably, a beacon generator generates the beacon for estimating the path quality.
- Preferably, a first memory is adapted to store a list of paths that can be used as transmission paths.
- Advantageously, the first control means updates the path list stored in the first memory depending on a change of the path quality.
- Further, advantageously, the first control means removes a path with a decreased path quality from the path list stored in the first memory.
- Preferably, the first control means adds a path with an increased path quality to the path list stored in the first memory.
- Preferably, the beacon and the data frames of a frame are sent via different narrow beam antennas.
- Advantageously, at least one additional beacon is sent between two frames.
- Preferably, a path estimator estimates the path quality based on the received beacon.
- Preferably, a second memory is adapted to store a list of paths that can be used as transmission paths.
- Advantageously, the second control means updates the path list stored in the second memory depending on a change of the path quality.
- Further, advantageously, the second control means removes a path with a decreased path quality from the path list stored in the second memory.
- Preferably, the second control means adds a path with an increased path quality to the path list stored in the second memory.
- Advantageously, the beacon and the frames of a frame are received via different narrow beam antennas.
- Preferably, at least one additional beacon is received between two frames.
- It is to be noted that the present invention can be applied to any kind of wireless communication system which enables the transmission and reception of signals over any kind of range. Further, the present invention is not restricted to any kind of modulation schemes or technical implementation of the wireless communication. Some embodiments and implementations of the present invention, however, might be advantageous in short and/or midrange wireless communication systems in which signals are transmitted in the millimetre wave range, as e.g. the 60 GHz transmission range. Further, the transmitting device and the receiving device of the present invention can be any kind of device adapted to transmit and receive, respectively, signals in a wireless communication system. The terms “transmitting device” and “receiving device” are hereby intended to comprise any kind of portable and/or stationary communication equipment, unit, means, system and so forth. The signals to be transmitted from the transmitting device to the receiving device according to the present invention may comprise any kind of information, data, symbols and so forth which can be transmitted from a transmitter to a receiver for any kind of reason and utility. According to the present invention, at least one of the transmitting device and the receiving device comprises at least two narrow beam antennas. In some implementations, it might be preferable that a transmitting device and a receiving device comprise a narrow beam antenna which is adapted to be steered to different positions. The term “narrow beam antenna” is hereby intended to comprise and cover all kinds of antennas which, in contrary to omni-directional antennas which do not have a specific transmission and/or reception direction, have a specific transmission and/or reception direction without any limitation of the specific shape of the antenna beam. Further, the narrow beam antenna of the present invention is not restricted to any specific steering type, i.e. the specific technical implementation which enables the steering or a switching of the narrow beam antenna to different beaming directions as long as the transmitting and/or receiving direction of the narrow beam antenna can be changed, switched, varied and the like. For example, but not exclusively, a narrow beam antenna according to the present invention may be an antenna with a fixed narrow beam radiation pattern, which can be varied by mechanically or electrically shifting the antennas so that the beam direction is varied. Further, the narrow beam antenna could be any antenna type which can be steered by changing the phase and/or the gain of the antenna so that the beam direction changes. As a further alternative, the narrow beam antenna could consist of an antenna pattern whereby each of the antenna elements of the antenna pattern has a specific narrow beam antenna direction and the elements can be controlled in a way that the beaming direction of the antenna is changed. Many other examples of steerable narrow beam antennas can be made, which are currently known or which may be developed in the future, but which would fall under the scope of the present invention.
- The present invention will be explained in more detail in the following description of preferred embodiments in relation to the enclosed drawings in which
FIGS. 1 aand1bshow a communication system according to the state of art,FIG. 2 schematically shows a transmitting device according to the present invention,FIG. 3 schematically shows a receiving device according to the present invention,FIGS. 4 aand4bschematically show a communication system according to the present invention,FIG. 5 schematically shows the possible paths between a transmitting device and a receiving device according to the present invention,FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing the process according to the method of the present invention,FIGS. 7 aand7bschematically showing the frame structures,FIG. 8 ashows a first embodiment according to the present invention andFIG. 8 bshows a second embodiment according to the present invention.FIG. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of atransmitting device 1 for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system according to the present invention. Hereby, the transmittingdevice 1 of the present invention as shown inFIG. 2 is only displayed with elements which are necessary for the implementation and the understanding of the present invention. All other necessary elements enabling the transmittingdevice 1 to transmit signals in a wireless communication system are not shown for the sake of clarity. However, in a practical implementation, all such elements, for example a power supply and the like would be implemented.- The transmitting
device 1 comprises afirst set 2 of narrow beam antennas which is adapted to allow a transmission of signals into different directions. A first antenna control means4 is provided which controls thefirst set 2 of narrow beam antennas either by steering the narrow beam antennas to different positions or by switching between the different narrow beam antennas. The first antenna control means itself is controlled by a first control means5. The first control means5 can be a base-stand processing and/or controlling means of the transmittingdevice 1 or any other suitable control unit. The first control means5 is connected to afirst memory 6 for storing data, information, applications, software codes and so forth. - The transmitting
device 1 is adapted to transmit signals in consecutive time frames, whereby examples of such frames are shown inFIGS. 7 aand7band will be explained later. Hereby, it is to be understood that the term “consecutive” does not necessarily mean that the frames are transmitted immediately one after the other. In some implementations there might be an interval between two consecutive frames, which e.g. can be used to handle the clock difference between a transmittingdevice 1 and a receiving side, such as the receivingdevice 10 as shown and explained inFIG. 3 , in order to support long time and high rate wireless communications, such as wireless high definition television or the like. Amongst other components, the frame comprises a beacon and data frames. Herefore, abeacon generator 9 for generating the beacon and a data means8 are provided in the transmitting device. The data means8 generates, collects, or obtains the data in any kind of suitable way and forwards the data to theframe generator 7. Thebeacon generator 9 also forwards the generated beacon to theframe generator 7 where the frames are formed. After a frame has been generated by theframe generator 7, the generated frames are then further processed in the usual manner, e.g. by modulating the frame information or the like, which are then upconverted and transmitted via first high frequency means3 through thefirst set 2 of narrow beam antennas. - An example of a receiving
device 10 for receiving signals in a wireless communication system according to the present invention is schematically shown in the block diagram ofFIG. 3 . The receivingdevice 10 comprises asecond set 11 of narrow beam antennas which is adapted to receive signals via different transmission paths. A second antenna control means13 is able to control the beaming direction of thesecond set 11 of narrow beam antennas either by steering the narrow beam antennas to different positions or by switching between the different narrow beam antennas. The second antenna control means itself is under the control of a second control means14. Thesecond control 14 can be any kind of suitable control means, such as a base band processing means of the receivingdevice 10, or any other suitable control and/or processing device. The second control means14 is connected tosecond memory 15 adapted to store data, information, applications, software programs and so forth necessary for the operation of the receivingdevice 10. The receivingdevice 10 further comprises a second high frequency section12 which is used to down convert the received signals via the second set11 of narrow beam antennas, which signals are then further processed in the usual manner in the receivingdevice 10. In addition, apath estimator 16 is adapted to perform an estimation of the quality of the used path on the basis of the received beacon. The path estimation information derived by thepath estimator 16 can e.g. be used in the second control means14 for changing the beaming direction to a suitable position. It is to be noted thatFIG. 3 only shows the necessary elements for understanding the present invention. In a practical implementation the receivingdevice 10 would comprise all other necessary elements for the operation of the receivingdevice 10 enabling the reception of signals in a wireless communication system. - Further, it is to be noted that the receiving
device 10 also comprises all necessary elements and functionalities to transmit signals in the wireless communication system either via the second set11 of antennas or a separate transmission antenna. Likewise, the transmittingdevice 1 comprises all necessary elements and functionalities enabling the reception of the signals in the wireless communication system either via thefirst set 2 of antennas or a separate reception antenna. Further, the elements and functionalities of the transmittingdevice 1 shown and explained in relation toFIG. 2 and of the receivingdevice 10 shown and explained in relation toFIG. 3 could be combined in a communication device enabling the transmission and reception of signals in the wireless communication system. - The principle of the present invention will now be explained with reference to
FIGS. 4 aand4b.FIGS. 4 aand4bshow a communication system comprising a transmittingdevice 1 and a receivingdevice 10 according to the present invention. The transmittingdevice 1 hereby comprises threenarrow beam antennas device 10 as well comprises threenarrow beam antennas transmitting device 1 and the receivingdevice 10 negotiate a transmission scheme comprising a list of transmission paths that can be used for transmission. As shown in the example ofFIG. 4 a, three transmission paths P0, P1and P2can be used for transmission as they each have a good path quality. When transmitting now the different data frames, the transmitting device does not only use one single path but transmits each frame via a different transmission path according to a round robin scheduling. For example, the transmittingdevice 1 transmits thefirst frame 23avia theantenna 2band the transmission path P0to the receivingdevice 10. Thesecond frame 23bis then transmitted over the antenna2aand the transmission path P1to the antenna11aof the receivingdevice 10. Thethird frame 23cis then transmitted over thethird antenna 2cand the path P2to the receivingdevice 10. - The advantage of the communication system is shown in
FIG. 4 awhere, as according to the state of art, after the transmission of thefirst frame 23aanobstacle 24 gets in the way of the line of sight transmission path P0. Due to the round robin scheduling and the transmission of subsequent frames via different transmission paths the second and thethird frame - It is to be noted that the present invention is not limited to a round robin scheduling algorithm but may implement any other path hopping scheme or algorithm that provides the possibility to use different paths for subsequent frames. The order of the used paths can be either repeated or the order can be changed even if not paths are added or deleted from the path list. Additionally or alternatively, one or more paths can be used more often than other paths.
- In addition, the present invention proposes to constantly monitor the paths that may be used for a transmission of a data frame. So the transmitting
device 1 and the receivingdevice 10 both hold a list of paths having a good path quality that can be used for transmission. Due to the monitoring of the path of the actual path list it can be detected if either a path out of the actual path list has a decreased quality and should therefore be removed from the path list or if a path that is actually not in the path list has an increased quality and therefore can be also used as a possible transmission path. - According to the present invention the transmission path is changed for subsequent frames in any case and not only in case that the presently used transmission path has a decreased quality. The present invention adopts a pro-active switching of transmission paths. I.e. even if the alternative transmission paths may have a slightly decreased transmission quality they will nevertheless be used for subsequent frames in order to reduce the probability of packet loss due to suddenly blocked beams.
- The present invention is carried out by using the MAC protocol. The MAC protocol takes into account the very specific application scenarios of the communication system. The main application scenario is a peer-to-peer connection between a sending and a receiving note. The MAC protocol distinguished two node classes, master and slave devices. In most cases, masters are stationary devices, whereas slaves may be portable devices but in the present invention, masters and slaves in both cases may be portable devices.
- Base of the MAC protocol is a super frame as shown in
FIG. 7 awith a definition of 10 msec. The master indicates the start of a super frame by sending a beacon BSF periodically every 10 msec. The beacon is followed by a contention access period CAP during which nodes which are not known to the master yet can send a registration request. The beacon is sent alternatively via the master's antennas. If a slave nodes response to a beacon, the master knows via which antenna the slave node can be reached initially. After the contention access period CAP follow the downlink and uplink communication slots, where downlink denotes the direction from master to slave, and uplink from slave to master, respectively. Depending on the required transmission rate, the up- and downlink slots can have different lengths, i.e., they do not have to be symmetric. - Either the master or the slave can initiate a connection. If a slave is the originator, it uses the contention access period to send a connection request to the master, which in turn assigns a number of up- and downstream slots to this slave. The upstream slots will be used for communication to the master by the slave from that point onward. In addition to regular super frames, a beacon super frame is sent periodically in which only beacons are sent, but via all different antennas of the master. Thus the slave can determine whether it receives beacons from the master via other paths than the currently active path.
- In the present invention with a transmitting
device 1 and a receivingdevice 10 depending on the number of narrow beam antennas, there are several possible communication paths between the transmittingdevice 1 and the receivingdevice 10. E.g., if the transmitting device and the receivingdevice 10 each are equipped with three narrow beam antennas, then there are 32=9 possible communication paths between the devices. It is to be noted that the present invention is not restricted to a number of two or three narrow beam antennas but may implement also more beam antennas for the transmittingdevice 1 and the receivingdevice 10. Further, the present invention is not limited to a communication system comprising a transmittingdevice 1 and a receivingdevice 10, each having several narrow beam antennas, but is also related to a communication system having either atransmitting device 1 with narrow beam antennas or a receivingdevice 10 with narrow beam antennas, whereby the respectively other device only has a single wide beam antenna. - For network formation, the master periodically sends beacons in a 10 msec super frame via all antennas. If a slave comes in range, it waits for a sufficient amount of time, i.e., at least 10 msec per antenna before switching to the next antenna. When receiving a signal from the master via the currently selected antenna, it notifies the master through an immediate MAC control message.
FIG. 7 bshow a simplified block diagram of a frame as transmitted and received in the present invention. The frame hereby comprises a beacon BSF and several data frames. The data frames hereby may be transmitted either from the transmitting device to the receiving device or vice versa. The super frame may also comprise other sequences, such as a contention access period, training sequences, or other preamble sections. For the sake of clarity, in the following description it is only referred to the beacon and the several data frames.- After establishing the communication via one path, the transmitting
device 1 and/or the receivingdevice 10 continue to switch through all available antennas in order to find additional possible transmission paths. This path scanning can be performed while a regular data transmission has already started.FIG. 5 shows an example of the establishing of transmission paths. E.g., the first transmission path P0is the line of sight transmission path between theantenna 2cof the transmittingdevice 1 and theantenna 11cof the receivingdevice 10. The transmittingdevice 1 will then continue to send out beacons via the other antennas in order to find additional transmission paths. In the example ofFIG. 5 , an additional transmission path P1, where the electromagnetic wave is reflected by anobject 22, is found between the antenna2aof the transmittingdevice 1 and the antenna11aof the receivingdevice 10. The transmittingdevice 1 and the receivingdevice 10 thereby both have a list of possible communication paths, in this case the paths P0and P1. This list comprises the communication path whose channel quality is high enough for data communication as well as the corresponding antenna beam IDs which has to be utilized to establish the communication link. In case that the possible transmission paths change both lists, i.e., the path list of the transmittingdevice 1 as well as the path list of the receivingdevice 10 have to be changed accordingly. - The process according to the present invention is shown in overview by the flow chart of
FIG. 6 . The process starts in step S0 for example, with an already negotiated list of communication paths as already explained. In step S1, the actual path list is checked. According to the transmission/reception scheme which has been negotiated between the transmittingdevice 1 and the receivingdevice 10, in the next step S2, the transmitting device transmits the data frames via the first path out of the path list and/or the receiving device receives data frames via a first path out of the actual path list. In the next step S3 which can also be before the step S2 or at the same time as step S2, a beacon is transmitted and/or received via at least one path that has not been used for the transmission and/or reception of the data in step S2. In the next step S4, it is checked if according to the transmitted and/or received beacon, a change in path quality has been detected. A change in path quality may be either that a path which is comprised in the actual path list is not good enough anymore to be used as a possible communication channel or a change in path quality may also be the case that a path which previously has no good transmission properties and therefore was not used for a possible transmission channel now has an increased channel quality and can be used for a possible transmission path. If a change in path quality in step S4 is detected then in step S7 the path list is updated, i.e., paths of the path list having a decreased quality are removed from the path list and paths not being on the list having an increased channel quality are added to the path list. In any case, either if the path list has not been changed or if the path list in step S7 has been updated, in the next step S5 it is checked if the end of the transmission and/or reception is reached. In case that there are no more data frames that shall be transmitted, the communication ends in step S6. Otherwise, if there is a need of a further transmission of data frames, then the next data frame in step S8 is transmitted and/or received via a further path out of the path list, whereby the path list is either the original path list or the updated path list, and whereby the further path is not the same path as the first one used in step S2. The process then continues with step S3 which may also be concurrently to step S8, where again beacons are sent over the other paths in order to check the channel quality. - As already explained during the transfer of the data frames, the list of useable paths is constantly updated. For this purpose, the MAC protocol uses beacons in its super frames. A super frame starts with a beacon BSF, followed by one or several data frames DF or control frames, all transmitted from the master to the slave. Thereafter the slave transmits its data or control frames to the master. For the data and control frames, the master and the slaves are using the previously negotiated active beam path and the respective antennas allowing a transmission over the selected beam path. For the transmission of the beacon, the master and the slave utilize in every super frame a different antenna beam in order to test the channel quality of this test beam channel. By utilizing this method, the list of usable paths can be updated and at the same time regular data communication is ongoing. When additional paths are found, the master and slave negotiate a path hopping scheme, e.g. a round robin scheduling of the data transmission. Assuming the availability of three paths, only every third frame is transmitted over the same path. If one of those paths is blocked by an obstacle, the probability is 33% that a frame gets lost before the blocked path is removed from the list of active paths. This is only the case if the path gets blocked while transmitting a frame. In general terms, if the master and slave can communicate via n possible paths, the probability that a path gets blocked while or just before transmitting a frame is 1/n.
- If characteristics of the paths are known, e.g. through heuristics based on passed measurements, the distribution of the super frame transmission can be adapted accordingly. If, e.g. the line of sight paths becomes more often blocked than the other non line of sight paths, the path hopping scheme may utilize the line of sight less than the other paths, thus decreasing the probability of frame loss even more should the path be blocked.
- As already explained, the present invention provides a data transmission via different paths. In addition, the present invention proposes a path monitoring of the quality of the other paths which are not actually used for data transmission. In addition to the round robin scheduling algorithm or to any other path hopping algorithm implemented in the present invention to distribute data frames over all available paths between the transmitting
device 1 and the receivingdevice 10, the transmittingdevice 1 can while sending a data frame via one path monitor the other known paths to determine the path quality. If the transmittingdevice 1 based on the feedback of the receiving device determines during these checks that a path got blocked, this path is removed from the path candidate list. Ideally, in this case no data losses occur, since the blocked path will not be used for transmission on the next round. Thus, if the path is blocked while transmitting via another path, the path monitoring that is performed during the transmission will have determined that this path is blocked and the removed the path from the list of paths to be used for transmission. - Specifically, the present invention proposes two embodiments, but is not limited to the presented embodiments.
- A first embodiment of a path monitoring scheme is shown in
FIG. 8 a. The time axis is hereby provided from the left to the right. Each line denotes a different path, in the present example four paths are provided. The transmission starts with super frame no.1. In this super frame, a beacon is sent overpath 2 and the transmission of the data frames happens viapath 1. That means thatpath 1 has been negotiated previously as the path having the best channel qualities and therefore the data frame transmission starts withpath 1. In the same super frame the beacon is sent overpath 2, so the path quality ofpath 2 can be monitored. In case that the beacon overpath 2 in the super frame no.1 is received by the receiving device, then in the next super frame no.2, the data frames are sent overpath 2. Likewise, in the super frame no.2, the beacon is sent over the next path of the path list which in the present example ispath 3. Thereby, again it can be checked ifpath 3 provides good channel qualities or if it is blocked. Again, in case thatpath 3 provides good channel qualities then the next data frame transmission is accomplished viapath 3 and so on. As an alternative, the beacon may not only be sent over a single path but over more paths in order to concurrently monitor several paths. - The advantage of this first embodiment is that no additional time is needed to scan the available paths which increases the maximum data rate.
- A second embodiment is shown in
FIG. 8 b. If the transmission of a data frame via one path and simultaneous scanning of an alternative path via the beacon is not possible due to hardware limitations, the monitoring process can be performed between the transmission of subsequent super frames. Hereby, as shown inFIG. 8 b, thesuper frame 1 is entirely sent via path no.1. Then, between the super frame no.1 and super frame no.2 an inter super frame is used where beacons are sent over all other paths in order to monitor the path quality of the other paths. In case that the next path on the path list, in thepresent example path 2, has good channel qualities, then the nextsuper frame 2 will be sent overpath 2. - This scan of all known paths in the inter super frame period in order to determine the path status requires that the receiving device answers immediately via the same path. If the path is blocked, the transmitting device will not receive the reply and drops the path from the next scheduled data transmission.
- With the usage of all available paths from the transmitting
device 1 to the receivingdevice 10, the possibility of data lost is decreased. In the simplest case, the distribution of the different frames over the different paths is determined by a round robin scheduling algorithm but also other algorithms may be used. For n available paths, the round robin scheduling reduces the probability of lost frames due to an obstacle in the path to 1/n, if path monitoring is employed simultaneously to the frame transmission.
Claims (33)
1. Transmitting device for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system,
wherein said signals are transmitted in consecutive frames, each frame comprising a beacon and data frames, said transmitting device comprising
a first set of narrow beam antennas, each narrow beam antenna having a different beaming direction corresponding to one of a number of different transmission paths from said transmitting device to a receiving device, and
a first control means adapted to control the transmission of said frames, whereby the data frames of respectively two consecutive frames are transmitted via different narrow beam antennas.
2. Transmitting device according toclaim 1 ,
whereby a beacon generator generates the beacon for estimating the path quality.
3. Transmitting device according toclaim 1 ,
whereby a first memory is adapted to store a list of paths that can be used as transmission paths.
4. Transmitting device according toclaim 1 ,
whereby the first control means updates the path list stored in the first memory depending on a change of the path quality.
5. Transmitting device according toclaim 4 ,
whereby the first control means removes a path with a decreased path quality from the path list stored in the first memory.
6. Transmitting device according toclaim 4 ,
whereby the first control means adds a path with an increased path quality to the path list stored in the first memory.
7. Transmitting device according toclaim 1 ,
whereby the beacon and the data frames of a frame are sent via different narrow beam antennas.
8. Transmitting device according toclaim 1 ,
whereby at least one additional beacon is sent between two frames.
9. Receiving device for receiving signals in a wireless communication system, wherein said signals are received in consecutive frames, each frame comprising a beacon and data frames, said receiving device comprising
a second set of narrow beam antennas, each narrow beam antenna having a different beaming direction corresponding to one of a number of different transmission paths from a transmitting device to said receiving device, and
a second control means adapted to control the reception of said frames, whereby the data frames of respectively two consecutive frames are received via different narrow beam antennas.
10. Receiving device according toclaim 9 ,
whereby a path estimator estimates the path quality based on the received beacon.
11. Receiving device according toclaim 9 ,
whereby a second memory is adapted to store a list of paths that can be used as transmission paths.
12. Receiving device according toclaim 9 ,
whereby the second control means updates the path list stored in the second memory depending on a change of the path quality.
13. Receiving device according toclaim 12 ,
whereby the second control means removes a path with a decreased path quality from the path list stored in the second memory.
14. Receiving device according toclaim 12 ,
whereby the second control means adds a path with an increased path quality to the path list stored in the second memory.
15. Receiving device according toclaim 9 , whereby the beacon and the frames of a frame are received via different narrow beam antennas.
16. Receiving device according toclaim 9 ,
whereby at least one additional beacon is received between two frames.
17. Communication system comprising a transmitting device according toclaim 1 and a receiving device according toclaim 9 .
18. Method for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system, wherein said signals are transmitted in consecutive frames, each frame comprising a beacon and data frames, said transmitting method comprising the steps of
providing a first set of narrow beam antennas, each narrow beam antenna having a different beaming direction corresponding to one of a number of different transmission paths from a transmitting device to a receiving device, and
transmitting the data frames of respectively two consecutive frames via different narrow beam antennas.
19. Method according toclaim 18 ,
said method comprising the step of
generating the beacon for estimating the path quality.
20. Method according toclaim 18 ,
said method comprising the step of
storing a list of paths that can be used as transmission paths in a first memory.
21. Method according toclaim 18 ,
said method comprising the step of
updating the path list stored in the first memory depending on a change of the path quality.
22. Method according toclaim 21 ,
said method comprising the step of
removing a path with a decreased path quality from the path list stored in the first memory.
23. Method according toclaim 21 ,
said method comprising the step of
adding a path with an increased path quality to the path list stored in the first memory.
24. Method according toclaim 18 ,
said method comprising the step of
sending the beacon and the data frames of a frame via different narrow beam antennas.
25. Method according toclaim 18 ,
said method comprising the step of
sending at least one additional beacon between two frames.
26. Method for receiving signals in a wireless communication system, wherein said signals are received in consecutive frames, each frame comprising a beacon and data frames, said receiving method comprising the steps of
providing a second set of narrow beam antennas, each narrow beam antenna having a different beaming direction corresponding to one of a number of different transmission paths from a transmitting device to a receiving device, and
receiving the data frames of respectively two consecutive frames via different narrow beam antennas.
27. Method according toclaim 26 ,
said method comprising the step of
estimating the path quality based on the received beacon.
28. Method according toclaim 26 ,
said method comprising the step of
storing a list of paths that can be used as transmission paths in a second memory.
29. Method according toclaim 26 ,
said method comprising the step of
updating the path list stored in the second memory depending on a change of the path quality.
30. Method according toclaim 29 ,
said method comprising the step of
removing a path with a decreased path quality from the path list stored in the second memory.
31. Method according toclaim 29 ,
said method comprising the step of
adding a path with an increased path quality to the path list stored in the second memory.
32. Method according toclaim 26 ,
said method comprising the step of
receiving the beacon and the data frames of a frame via different narrow beam antennas.
33. Method according toclaim 26 ,
said method comprising the step of
receiving at least one additional beacon between two frames.
Applications Claiming Priority (3)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| EP07105275 | 2007-03-29 | ||
| EP07105275AEP1976149B1 (en) | 2007-03-29 | 2007-03-29 | Method and device for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system and method and device for receiving signals in a wireless communication system |
| EP07105275.7 | 2007-03-29 |
Publications (2)
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| US20080242251A1true US20080242251A1 (en) | 2008-10-02 |
| US8014828B2 US8014828B2 (en) | 2011-09-06 |
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Country Status (4)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| US (1) | US8014828B2 (en) |
| EP (1) | EP1976149B1 (en) |
| JP (1) | JP5284667B2 (en) |
| CN (1) | CN101277537B (en) |
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Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| US8014828B2 (en) | 2011-09-06 |
| EP1976149B1 (en) | 2011-10-19 |
| EP1976149A1 (en) | 2008-10-01 |
| JP5284667B2 (en) | 2013-09-11 |
| CN101277537A (en) | 2008-10-01 |
| CN101277537B (en) | 2013-01-02 |
| JP2008263603A (en) | 2008-10-30 |
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